2013-07-29, 02:04 AM
Animation Wrote:EDIT: Like, what the pomegranate? Why don't they teach us crap like this in school? How to manage money in general, how to get a job (painstakingly, by the way), what the hell a 401(k) is, credit/debit cards, banks, investments, etc. Seriously, I'd feel a lot better if I knew about this sort of stuff.
They're far too busy having you read Romeo And Juliet 5 times over 12 years, and trying to have you understand Shakespeare whether you want to or not, regardless of how useful it isn't.
Figure out how much money you need to get around between paychecks (food, gas, etc.). Then, determine what you need for bills or anything like that, and put that aside or pay it immediately. I tend to pay bills immediately on my payday so that I don't accidentally forget later, and put myself into a tough spot. If you have any other potential costs or bills, I would put them third, but that kind of stuff changes based on events in your life. For example, do you need new tires for your car? Might want to put some aside for specifically for that. Then, take a set percentage or amount of what's left, and put that into savings. Depending on how much you have, you may want to save more or less. I put effort into saving at least $100 a paycheck, but with my school loans coming in that's not always possible (My end of the month loan is 2/3rds my paycheck + rent + gas = almost all my paycheck, so for myself I can't really save much at the end of the month).
The less bills you have, the more you can save. Try to put away a lot now, because you never know when you will hit an unexpected cost. For example, cars tend to break down when you can't afford it, I know this from experience.
I think your problem is that you get paid daily (at least, that's what I got from how you worded it). It seems like a lot less when it's daily. The end result is that it's harder to manage, because it's smaller sums of money. I would say try breaking everything into weekly paychecks. What I mean is that you should immediately deposit anything you earn and not touch it until a Sunday or something, and then do the above. If you tend to spend through your account, put your earnings into a safe spot until a set day when you will deposit all of it into your account at once. When you have to budget for a longer period of time, it tends to become more important how you use each dollar you have. At least, that's my experience. When you get X dollars every day, you probably tend to go, "Well, I'll just wait until tomorrow for [whatever_problem_here]," which is A VERY BAD LINE OF THINKING.
Everyone here has some decent suggestions, I thought I'd just give my two cents for how I handle my own finances.